Cal Poly women’s tennis will experience a first Thursday when sophomores Brittany Blalock and Steffi Wong begin doubles competition at the NCAA Championships in Tulsa, Okla.
Blalock and Wong will take on Texas’ Marija Milic and Vanja Corovic, slotted No. 23 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings.
The Mustangs’ 46th-ranked duo enters the championships confident, having already played many highly ranked teams during the regular season.
They won two of five matches they’ve played against other duos selected for the championships, comprised of 32 tandems.
“You get a lot of experience playing those teams,” Blalock said. “There’s a bunch of different varieties, and I feel like that really prepped us well going into this tournament.”
Blalock and Wong, who began the season in the top 25 (the top 60 qualified for the tournament), both seem to be approaching the field without many preconceptions.
“We did set a goal at the beginning of the year to make it to the NCAAs, and it was just such an added bonus when we found out,” Blalock said. “We’re going to look at it as an experience and go out there and compete our hardest.”
Sharing such self-assuredness is Mustangs head coach Hugh Bream, who said Blalock and Wong – named to the All-Big West Conference First Team following a 14-7 dual campaign – are “peaking at the right time.”
He added Blalock’s big serve and solid ground strokes, and Wong’s strengths covering the net complement each other well.
“I think the goal is to just go in there and have a lot of fun and be aggressive,” Bream said. “They’re always at their best when they’re really taking it to the other team, early in points, serving aggressively, returning aggressively and controlling their play at the net. I think they’re going to do those things well down there, and beyond that, we’ll see what happens.”
The championships will be held through May 26 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.